WIXLIB

ThemesThe main themes of the novel and supporting quotes are outlined below as a teacher reference.(ACELT1635/LT/RWSL/LY,IU,PSC) As a class, list what you think are the themes of the novel. In pairs or small groups, choose one theme. Write two discussion points for your theme, and use them to guide a class discussion. Provide the class with quotes from the text to illustrate your theme.Memories‘George and I have found all kinds of things in books over the years – letters, shopping lists, bustickets, dreams.’ (p.34)‘I’m thinking about the transmigration of memory. Not the transmigration that happened in theBorges story, but the transmigration of memory that happens all the time – saving people theonly way we can – holding the dead here with their stories, with their marks on the page, withtheir histories.’ (p.304)Discussion Point: How does the novel show the importance of personal landscapes?Discussion Point: Is there such a thing as truth? Or do we all invent our own?Discussion Point: How are our memories influenced by our landscapes?Change and growth‘He and Mum bought this place twenty years ago, when it was a florist.’ (p.32)Activity: Map the ways in which the characters in Words in Deep Blue change.Discussion Point: The only truly satisfying lives are the ones where change occurs.Discussion Point: Change is a small death. Discuss in relation to the book.Discussion Point: Growth and change are not always positive.Isolation/Connection‘Why are you writing to me? According to everyone at school, I’m a freak.’ (p.41)‘Mostly people write to strangers who love the same books as them – and some stranger,somewhere, writes back.’ (p.37)Discussion Point: Literature gives us more than stories. It gives us connection.Love‘The Letter Library is a section of books that aren’t for sale. Customers can read the books, butthey can’t take them home. The idea is that they can circle loved words or sentences on thepages. They can write notes in the margins. They can leave letters for people who’ve read andbeen there before them.’ (p.22)

‘I love this place but I don’t know that I love it as much as Dad does – he doesn’t care if it makesmoney.’ (p.32)‘I wanted so badly to study the water it had come from.’ (p.6)‘I knew everything there was to know about Henry. Like just didn’t cover it.’ (p.20)Discussion Point: Words in Deep Blue is about many types of love. Romantic love is the leastimportant of all of them.Literature‘Sometimes you need the poets’.’ (p.244)‘I love books down to the full stops.’ (p.311)Discussion Point: Words are the most powerful form of change.Discussion Point: Literature tells us who we are.Grief‘I open my eyes at midnight to the sound of the ocean and my brother’s breathing. It’s been tenmonths since Cal drowned, but the dreams still escape.’ (p.5)‘’You want to hide. You want to be miserable.’ (p.54)‘Flat and starless, as though the world had become a box with a lid on it.’ (p.55)‘Not surprisingly, I haven’t taken the break-up well, and I have no intention of taking it well in thefuture.’ (p.27)‘What’s that wonderful Dickens line from Great Expectations?’ Dad asks. ‘The broken heart. Youthink you will die, but you just keep living, day after day after terrible day.’ (p.31)Discussion Point: Words in Deep Blue explores the idea that grief is not only felt at the death ofa person. We can feel grief over the loss of other things too, such as our hopes and dreams.Discussion Point: Discuss the representations of grief in the novel.Time‘I don’t believe in ghosts or past lives or time travel or any of the strange things that Cal liked toread about. But every time I stand on the beach I wish us all back‘. (p.7)Discussion Point: Words in Deep Blue shows us that life is about the past, present, andthe future.

Imagery and SymbolismWhat does the ocean symbolise in the novel? Explain your answer and give a quote from thetext to support your argument.Why might the author have chosen to set the story in a bookshop that was once a florist? Canyou find any other settings in the novel that have been ‘reused’?What is symbolic about the transmigration of the Letter Library?How is the structure of the novel symbolic of the themes? Consider the letters between Cal andGeorge, and the letters in the Letter Library.

Plot and Structure(ACELT1641/LA/R, W, S1, L/LY, CCT)Dual NarratorsAs a class, discuss the following: Why might the author have chosen to alternate between Henry and Rachel’sperspectives? How would only having Rachel as narrator changed the mood of the novel? Why might the author have chosen to add in George and Cal’s story through letters andnot through first-person narration?LayoutHow does the book’s layout and design support and extend the narrative?Romantic ComedyThe novel is a coming of age story about serious issues, but it is also romantic comedy. Thepace is fast, the dialogue is witty, there’s wonderful chemistry between the characters. The useof humour and romance enhances the themes of the novel.A romantic comedy generally follows the structure set out below.The Set Up. The chemistry between the two people is established, the interior and exteriorconflict is shown.The Meet Cute. The incident that brings the couple together and into conflict.The complications, also known as fun and games. The couple is drawn together but are atcross-purposes. One character is changing the other – perhaps they are changing each other.The Midpoint. A situation that binds the couple – but presents further complications.Dark Night of the Soul. Everything seems lost.Ending resolution. The characters reconcile. The characters have changed in order to betogether. Usually, one main character changes to a greater extent.In pairs, discuss the questions below. Take notes, and share your views with the class. In what ways does the novel follow the romantic comedy structure? In a novel, or a short story, the structure is often reliant on a question that is set up andanswered by the author. The question for Rachel in Words in Deep Blue could be - Willshe be able to free herself enough from the grief over Cal’s death to reengage with life?What other questions does the writer set up through the plot of her novel?

CharactersComplete the table below by adding in key quotes from the text to illustrate each character’skey changing points. Choose quotes from different points in the novel to show progression.Present your quotes to the class. Discuss, as a group, the changes that occur in each character.(ACELT1640/LT/R, W, S1, L/LY, CCT, inning)Quote(Middle)(Quote)EndExplanation ofchange

Style and Use of LanguageVoiceThe narrative voice of Words in Deep Blue is first person, present tense, from both Rachel andHenry’s point of view, with letters and notations from George, Cal, Martin, Mr and Mrs Jonesand some strangers. Choose a section of the narrative and rewrite it in third person. How does this change thenarrative? Why has the writer chosen to write in the first person? How does the narrativevoice support the themes of the novel?Voice is created by a range of devices including syntax, punctuation, word-choice, literarydevices such as metaphor and simile, character development and dialogue. Henry and Rachel have very different voices. Choose one paragraph for each, andanalyse how the writer creates this difference.HumourHumour is an important tool to use when writing about grief. Do you agree? Why or why not?Setting(ACELY1746/LY1/WSL/LYICT/CCT)Words in Deep Blue has three important settings: the ocean, the bookshop and the booksthemselves. Find a quote from the text to to describe each of these settings. Authors often create mood boards, or scrapbooks, to illustrate/explore the settingbefore they write. Create a scrapbook for Words in Deep Blue, to show how Rachel seesthe ocean, how Henry sees the bookshop, and how you imagine these things. Create a mood board or a scrapbook for a story that you plan to write. After you’vefinished, describe your setting in a paragraph, exploring what you see, hear, taste, touchand smell.Writing Ideas(ACELY1746/LY1/WSL/LY,ICT,CCT)In Words in Deep Blue, Henry loves ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ by T. S. Eliot. Find apoem that you love. Underline the words and phrases that appeal to you, noting the reasons you have chosenthese words or lines. Can you find examples of alliteration? Similes? Metaphors? Repetition? Explain the effectof these literary techniques What is the mood of the poem? Find a song that illustrates the mood of the poem. How is this mood created? What is the poem about? Provide a biography of the author.

Kate Tempest, a rapper, poet, playwright and author says, ‘I feel like there is a momentwhen language lives, and that is when it is read with the same kind of electricityand vigour as it’s written with.’ Perform your poem to the class, or record the poemand play it to the class.‘A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.’ Kafka. Write about a song, or a book thathas changed you in some way.‘We’d read ‘The Last Night of the World’ and the idea caught on that we should all spend anight pretending it was our last and do the things we’d do if an apocalypse were heading ourway.’ (p.15) Write a short story describing how you would spend your last night in the world. Itcould be in the form of a traditional short story, letter or list.Henry and Rachel are best friends. Write about a friend who is important to you.Quotes/Ideas for Discussion After Reading the Novel(ACELT1635/LT/RWSL/LY,IU,PSC) (ACELY1646/LY1/RSL/LY,CCT)‘Every love story is a ghost story.’ The Pale King, by David Foster Wallace. How does this quoterelate to the themes of the novel?Physical books are on the way out. And we don’t need them. What do you think? Give reasonsfor your answer.Dreams are more important than money. Discuss.Our landscapes define us – before, during and after life. How does your landscape define you?Sometimes you need the poets. How is poetry essential to humanity? Or is it?‘A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.’ Kafka. Explore this quote in relation to thecharacters in Words in Deep Blue, and explore it in relation to your own life.Further Ideas Using Technology(ACELY1748/LY1/W/LY,ICT,CCT)Create a book trailer about this novel. Show the themes through the images, mood and music.Create an online interactive Letter Library, full of books you’ve read and loved. Include keyquotes, letters that you would write to the author, or a letter you might write to a stranger whohas also loved this book.Record a podcast where you discuss this novel. Look at characters, themes, language use andwhat the novel reveals about our society.

Author NoteCath Crowley studied Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT and works as both a freelancewriter and creative writing teacher. Words in Deep Blue is her sixth novel, following the threeGracie Faltrain novels and the award-winning Chasing Charlie Duskin and Graffiti Moon. To findout more about Cath, please visit cathcrowley.com.au.Further ReadingFiction (shared themes in brackets)Bradbury, Ray Fahrenheit 451, Ballantine Books, 1953 (The importance of books)Gale, Emily The Other Side of Summer, Penguin Random House, 2016 grief)Wood, Fiona Wildlife, Pan Macmillan, 2015 (grief, love, poetry)Zusak, Markus The Book Thief, Pan Macmillan, 2005 (grief, the importance of words)Non-fictionLaita, Mark Sea, Abrams, 2011 (Ocean life, referenced in novel)Short StoriesBradbury, Ray ‘The Last Night of the World’, 2012 (referenced in the novel)PoetryEliot, T.S. ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, Prufrock and Other Observations, Faber andFaber, 2010Neruda, Pablo The Captain’s Verses, New Directions, 1972Walcott, Derek ‘Dark August’, The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948-2013, Macmillan, 2014

Now, she's back, working at the bookstore, grieving for her brother Cal. She's looking for the future in the books people love, and the words they leave behind. Sometimes you need the poets The new novel from the award-winning author of Graffiti Moon. h y Cath Crowley a love story Cover image & design: i2i Design FICTION Also available as .